Sometimes you just never know who's going to come to your rescue. In the case of privacy on the Internet, Verizon is starting the year off as benefactor to the world by fighting the RIAA in court over the identity of an internet user.

Of course, it's not all quite that simple or altruistic. Verizon is fighting to continue the tradition of immunity for common carriers whose customers do something that may or may not be wrong. Further, they don't like the DMCA's provisions for fast-track subpoenas that make it easy for the RIAA (and any other organization that claims to have been harmed under the Act) to request information from other sources leading to the identity of the alleged perpetrator.

Of course, Verizon and similar organizations see the headache (in terms of fielding all of these requests) and the liability (in terms of the potential lawsuits from individuals who think they've been wronged by Verizon), so it's not just Verizon looking out for their customers, but it's a start.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the RIAA is certainly not anyone's friend.

Original story from MacCentral here.